Doctor of the Dead
by pyromoosepoop
Summary: On the day of the dead, Bill finds the Doctor buying flowers. She follows the Doctor to see who the flowers are being given to. One shot.


November 1st, the day of the dead. Well, it was only one day of the three but every second day of this Mexican holiday, I grab a flower to put in front of my mum's grave. Doing something like this was a lot more common in Britain, rather than celebrating how the North Americans do.

As I walked into the flower shop, I saw a familiar face. The Doctor. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hands and he gave the exact change to the cashier. As he was going to leave, he saw me.

"Bill, what are you doing here?" He asked. He's always so concerned for me like I'm his responsibility.

"I was going to grab a flower to give to my mum. Why are you here?" I asked. The Doctor looked at the flowers in his hand. "Are you buying flowers for somebody you lost?"

"I guess you could say that," he said. Always so vague, so many secrets.

"Can I come with you? To, um, give the flowers away?" I asked. The Doctor looked at me, his face looked like it was just screaming 'no' at me. "Please?" I asked.

He looked at the floor and sighed. "Fine," He said. I smiled. "But we should visit your Mum first, don't you think?"

"Um, yeah," I said and picked up a dozen blue violet.

"Blue violets, Humans chose them to mean watchfulness, faithfulness, and to say 'I'll always be there'. Why'd you choose that one?" He asked.

The Doctor's statement threw me off, I would have never expected that. "It just looked pretty," I said, "How do you know so much about flower meanings?"

"No reason," He said. Probably a lie. "The TARDIS is right around the corner. After you buy the flowers I can just fly you to your mums grave."

"Okay," I said.

The Doctor smiled and left the store. I bought the violets and found the TARDIS. When I opened the door, the Doctor was talking. I'm not really sure if he was talking to himself or to me. "I don't like money," He was saying, "But the university keeps on giving me all this money. I use to give it to Nardole, but he was buying fidget spinners with it, so charities started getting my salary instead."

"Which charity?" I asked.

"Not important. So, where is your Mum?" he asked.

"Mable Way Cemetery," I said.

"Okay," He said and started pushing buttons on the control panel. The familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS was heard as it flew. The whooshing stopped. "We're here"

I walked out the door and right outside was a gravestone saying 'Rosie Potts 1954-1987'. "How did you get right outside her grave?" I asked the Doctor.

"Spacey wacey stuff," He said. I won't question it.

I put the bouquet of violets onto the grave. "Rest in peace," I whispered to her grave, then turned back to the Doctor. "So, it's time to go deliver your flowers." he would probably try to avoid me watching him giving his flowers away if I don't remind him. He always tries to hide his emotions.

"Okay," He said, it sounded reluctant as I guessed. He pressed more buttons on the TARDIS and after a couple of seconds of travel the Doctor grabbed one of the seven flowers and walked out of the TARDIS. I followed him. The TARDIS was in front of a big memorial with hundreds of flowers already at its base.

"You lost someone on the day the ghosts attacked?" I asked, recognizing the memorial. Something dawned on me. "You got rid of the ghost robots, didn't you? And those pepper shaker things, those were the Daleks that you showed me when we were being chased by a puddle, yeah? And you defeated those too? How?"

"A big hole in the wall and 3-D glasses," He said and put a light pink rose on top of a pile of light pink roses.

"What does the light pink rose mean?" I asked. I guessed he knows the meaning behind all of his flowers if he knew the meaning behind mine.

"Tea Rose," the Doctor said, "'I'll Remember Always'."

I looked at the column of names above the roses, and there was one name that kind of stuck out. "Is it also a rose for Rose Tyler?"

"No, of course not," He said and started walking back to the TARDIS. "That flower was for someone else." I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

Our next destination was just a house. "No cars in the driveway. They must be busy," He said.

"Who's busy?" I asked.

"Martha," He said, "And I guess Mickey too, but I didn't get him anything."

"If they're still alive, why are you bringing them flowers?" I asked.

The Doctor placed the flower down. "Lily of the Valley," he said instead of answering my question, " it means sweetness, return to happiness, and humility." He started to walk back to the TARDIS again.

"Aren't lilies friend zone flowers?" I ask, following him.

"What?" He questioned as he opened the door to the time machine.

"Well, whenever I get boys flowers I get lilies, to sort of say that I won't be interested. It's not too fancy or anything, so it says 'I like you but not in that kind of way'."

The Doctor was going to say something, but the TARDIS landing cut him off. "This one's going to require some walking," He said and grabbed a flower.

I was curious why we had to walk this time but none of the other times, but I decided not to question it. As we walked, I looked at the blue flowers in his hand and actually recognized it. "Forget-me-not? Doesn't that mean memorize?"

"Yes," the Doctor said, "one of the memorize involves a giant spider alien. Wouldn't want to forget that, would you?"

"No," I said. That actually sounded really cool. "Can I fight a giant spider alien?"

"They're all dead. All their species ever wanted to do was conquer and kill, so they got set on fire."

"Who would have guessed that a giant spider race was evil," I said. That's when we approached a door. I could see movement in a nearby window. "Hold on, is this person alive too? Or does their family have their ashes or something?"

"Define alive," the Doctor said. The door opened and a red headed woman opened the door.

"Who are you?" the woman asked. Her voice was full of sass.

"Oh, I was expecting Wilfred to open the door," the Doctor said.

"Were you going to give him flowers?" She asked.

"No, these are for you actually," he said and handed the girl the forget-me-not. The woman looked at the flower in confusion.

She didn't seem to recognize the doctor in the slightest. "So that's who you fought a giant spider with?" I asked.

"Bill!" The Doctor said, which sounded like a scolding. The woman winced in pain and put her hand on her head like she had a really bad headache.

"Are you okay?" I ask her, but the Doctor grabs and hand and runs to the side of the house, dragging me along with him. "What the hell just happened?"

"If she remembers the adventures we had her brain would melt," he said and started walking back to his box. I followed.

"What? How does that happen?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I probably won't happen to you. It involved a severed off hand full of regeneration energy."

"Severed hand?" I asked

"You have a lot of questions," he said.

"You never tell me anything about your life before guarding the vault."

"Because it's boring," He said and walked into the TARDIS. "Besides, you should probably be getting home. The essay on how amazing space is won't right itself."

"No way," I protested, "You still have four flowers left and I want to see where they go."

"Fine, but no more questions."

"Can I ask what the flowers mean?"

The Doctor looked at me "But that's the only question you can ask."

"Thank you," I said. The Doctor didn't respond, he just pulled a lever and the TARDIS was off again. Once it stopped making noise, both me and the Doctor walked outside of the TARDIS and I immediately noticed the giant green lady decently far away, but still in view. "The Statue of Liberty!" I exclaimed. "Are we in America?"

"Question," He said and stood in front of a grave.

"Oh come on, it has nothing to do with your past," I complained. I looked at the gravestone the Doctor was looking at. It said 'IN LOVING MEMORY RORY AUTHUR WILLIAMS AGED 82 AND HIS LOVING WIFE AMELIA WILLIAMS AGED 87'. The doctor placed two flowers in front of the grave. "What do the flowers mean?" I asked.

"Mixed Zinnia and orange mock. The zinnia means thinking, or in memory, or an absent friend."

"And the orange one?"

"That one's for Rory. It basically says that he was much less annoying than Mickey."

I just nodded, knowing if I asked what that meant he would probably leave me before I could find out where the last two go. "Where to next?" I asked once we entered the time and space machine.

"Question, " he said. I decided to be quiet as he pressed buttons to travel again. When the time machine stopped, the Doctor opened the doors and we were in space! I ran up to the doors and looked out in awe.

"Space is so beautiful," I mumble

"Yes, yes it is," he said and held a pink flower outside the TARDIS doors. As if the Doctor could read my mind, he said "Pink Carnation. It means 'I'll never forget you'"

"Who's it for?" I asked. He's just letting it loose in the middle of space. After I asked, I remembered the no question rule.

Surprisingly, he didn't say 'question'. "I don't know," He said instead, "I can't remember a thing about her." He was looking out at space like he was mesmerized.

"Why can't you remember her?" I asked.

He seemed to get out of the trance because he looked at me. "Question," He said and closed the doors. I could hear the faint noise of a TARDIS outside of closed doors, but the Doctor hasn't even reached the control panel yet.

"Doctor," I said, to tell him about the mysterious sound.

"That happens sometimes," the Doctor said. I pretty sure it was a lie. He pressed buttons and we were flying again. There was only one flower left on the counsel. It was a bright white vine of flowers. The landing noise sounded, and because I never moved from the doors, I opened them while the Doctor walked over. Outside the doors were a lot of people, only one person paid notice to the giant blue box appearing out of nowhere, but the man just shrugged it off. All up and down the walls were giant shelves with billions of books. It was fascinating. I bet the Doctor loves it here. He's such a nerd for books.

"Every book ever written is here, in this library."

"It smells like paper in here," I said

"It's a library, of course it smells like paper," he replied and started walking through the semi busy library. He took out his sonic screwdriver and started sonic screwing the flowers.

"Hey, Doctor, is it called sonic screwing?" I ask.

"No, and question," he said.

We stopped at a balcony together. I looked over the edge, it was a long way down. The Doctor stopped sonic screwdrivering the flower vine and put it on the ledge. He then turned his screwdriver up to the ceiling with the buzzing getting higher pitched as he did so. Suddenly the flower vine became pixelated and disappeared. It looked awesome.

"Woah, what was that?" I asked excitedly.

"They were Orange Blossoms. They mean eternal love, marriage, and fruitfulness," he said, misunderstanding what my question.

"No, I meant what was that pixel thing?"

"I know, but that's not a permitted question."

Pixels appeared again and came together into a sticky note with some words on it. The only thing I could make out before the Doctor grabbed the note was the word 'Sweety'. "Wait, are you married to a library?" I ask.

"No, it's illegal to marry a library in this part of space," he said and started walking back to the TARDIS, but now his eyes were fixated on the floor. He stayed looking at the floor all the way to the TARDIS. Once we got inside, he said "Now, Bill, we have to take you home."

Just as he promised, the Doctor dropped me off at my flat and disappeared shortly after.

In all my travels with him, I can bet that he lost a lot more than seven people. I'm kind of happy I got as far as I did with the Doctor's past

~~~~0~~~~

I walk through the TARDIS, Bill finally left. Alone with my thoughts, never a good thing, especially on this specific earth holiday. I know Sexy is hiding the room from me, but she can't keep it hidden forever. I once heard a story, about a little boy who has lost so many people. One day, he walks up to his mother and asks 'Mum, why do all the best people die?' I found the door I was looking for and stood in front of it. In the story, the mother looked at the boy. 'When you're in the garden, which flowers do you pick?' she asked. I put my hand on the door. The boy understood what his mom said. I opened the door and the flowers flooded out, surrounding my feet. The flowers for every Gallifreyan, every human, every alien that lost a life because of me. The boy looked at his mother, 'the most beautiful ones,' the boy said. The problem with the story is, all of the flowers in the garden are the most beautiful. I can't stop myself from ripping the flowers from the ground, taking away their safety, slowly taking their life. One by one, flower after flower, the gardener comes and ruins it all.


End file.
